that ever lived,
and would make a better wife perhaps than the girl I think of."

"And who is the girl you think of?"

"She is to be found in the same house."

"You do not mean the elder sister?" said the unfortunate one. He had
known well that his companion had not alluded to Patience Underwood;
but in his agony he had suggested to himself that mode of escape.

"No; not Patience Underwood. Though, let me tell you, a man might do
worse than marry Patience Underwood. I have always thought it a pity
that Patience and Gregory would not make a match of it. He, however,
would fall in love with Clary, and she has too much of the rake in
her to give herself to a parson. I was thinking of Mary Bonner, who,
to my mind, is the handsomest woman I ever saw in my life."

"I think she is," said Ralph, turning away his face.

"She hasn't a farthing, I fancy," continued the happy heir, "but I
don't regard that now. A few months ago I had a mind to marry for
money; but it isn't the sort of thing that any man should do. I have
almost made up my mind to ask her. Indeed, when I tell you, I suppose
I have quite made up my mind."

"She'll accept you,--of course."

"I can say nothing about that, you know. A man must take his chance.
I can offer her a fine position, and a girl, I think, should have
some regard to money when she marries, though a man should not. If
there's nobody before me I should have a chance, I suppose."

His words were not boastful, but there was a tone of triumph in his
voice. And why should he not triumph? thought the other Ralph. Of
course he would triumph. He had everything to recommend him. And as
for himself,--for him, the dispossessed one,--any particle of a claim
which he might have secured by means of that former correspondence
had been withdrawn by his own subsequent words. "I dare say she'll
take you," he said, with his face still averted.

Ralph the heir did indeed think that he would be accepted, and he
went on to discuss the circumstances of their future home, almost
as though Mary Bonner were already employed in getting together her
wedding garments. His companion said nothing further, and Ralph the
heir did not discover that anything was amiss.

On the following day Ralph the heir went across the country to the
Moonbeam in Buckinghamshire.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

NEEFIT MEANS TO STICK TO IT.

There was some business to be done as a matter of course before the
young Squire could have all h